Smart Cooking: Pizza gets a 'fusion' makeover

Tuesday

May 16, 2017 at 9:30 PM

Indian meets Italian with Naan Pizza Margherita, which uses the traditional flatbread as a quick substitute for dough.

By Ellen BrownSpecial to The Journal

Fusion food began as a term a few decades ago to describe dishes that drew their ingredients from one culture or cuisine and their form from another. Think of pan-fried dumplings filled with foie gras or a Napoleon made from fried wonton wrappers instead of puff pastry.

What’s happened more recently that ties to this trend is the explosion of raised flatbreads from around the world that are available in supermarkets. There’s no reason that pizzas need to be baked on pizza dough when they can also be quickly assembled on naan, the traditional Indian flatbread.

Naan is typically made with yogurt or buttermilk and the dough is cooked at a very high temperature on the sides of a clay oven called a tandoor, although most cooks today make them in a cast-iron skillet, on the grill, or under the broiler. Naan also has a slightly smoky note from the high heat, so if you’re a fan of coal-fired pizza crust you’ll like using naan as a base carrier.

You can substitute naan in making everything from nachos to French toast, and it becomes very crispy when baked in a hot oven. In the parts of England that have a significant number of residents of Indian origin, naan takes the place of hamburger rolls, and I’ve used it for grilled cheese sandwiches as well as wraps.

According to legend, Pizza Margherita was created in Naples in 1889 to honor the visit of Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of King Umberto I. The ingredients — tomato, mozzarella, and basil — stand for the red, white, and green of the Italian flag. While in Naples it would be deemed blasphemy to use anything but pizza dough, give naan a try for an easy treat.

Kitchen hack: Fresh mozzarella makes a dish memorable

There’s a huge difference between freshly grated Parmesan cheese and the stuff resembling white sawdust sold in the green can. And the same can be said for fresh mozzarella, which is sold packed in water and usually found in the cheese department, and the bags of shredded "pizza cheese" hanging in the refrigerator case near the butter and eggs.

Creamy fresh mozzarella is made from whole cow’s milk — never partially skimmed — and it has a first cousin, mozzarella di bufala, which is made from the milk of water buffalo, not the sort of bison we see on the range. Water buffalo milk is richer than cow’s milk, and the resulting cheese is a bit sweeter than cow’s milk mozzarella with a note of grassy flavor.

Naan Pizza Margherita

Sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 (14.5-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pizzas:

2 (8.8-ounce) packages naan bread

¼ pound fresh mozzarella cheese, drained and thinly sliced

1/3 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves, torn into shreds

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place a pizza stone or foil-covered baking sheet inside as it preheats.

For the sauce, heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, or until the onion is softened. Add the garlic, parsley and oregano and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the tomatoes and mash them with a potato masher or the back of a spoon. Cook the sauce over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until it thickens, stirring occasionally. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

For the pizzas, spread the sauce evenly over the naan to within ½-inch of the edge. Arrange the slices of mozzarella, shredded basil, and cherry tomatoes on top of the sauce, and sprinkle with crushed red pepper flakes.

Bake the pizzas for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 individual pizzas

Note: The sauce can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered.

— Providence resident Ellen Brown, the founding food editor of USA Today, is the author of more than 40 cookbooks, including the just-released "The New Pressure Cooker Cookbook" (Sterling Epicure, 2016). Write to her at smartcookri@gmail.com.